In the mid 80's, Peter Gillis frequented a Chicago bar, where he bonded with Epic Illustrated artist Mike Saenz over their shared passion for the newly released Apple Macintosh. Saenz was fascinated by the artistic potential of computers, so together they developed an innovative technique which made it possible to produce comics on these rudimentary machines. Before graphics tablets and hard drives, Saenz was limited to drawing with a mouse on a tiny monochrome screen in MacPaint, then printing the results on a dot matrix to colour by hand. The pair put an all digital proposal together called Shatter, which Marvel passed on, so hometown company First Comics wound up publishing the world's "first computerised comic".
Shatter Special (1985)
Art: Mike Saenz
The 28 page proof of concept Shatter special was a marketing triumph. Possibly First's top selling single issue, it sold out, even on the second printing. The curiosity factor of a comic produced almost entirely on computer proved overwhelming.
As for the actual content, it was a story clearly tailored to the limitations of its digital medium, a near future detective thriller instantly recognisable to fans of Blade Runner in particular. To be fair, science fiction lover PBG was au fait with PKD, and Shatter better reflects Philip K Dick's satire and sense of the absurd. Our smart aleck hero Sadr al-din Morales goes by many aliases, including Jack Scratch and Shatter. Like many of the future residents of Chicago, now known as Daley City, he works temp jobs, bidding on police contracts over email. It pays for his Coca Cola, which apparently they stop making in 2034. There's some impressive world building and predictions by Gillis, considering the otherwise uninspired cyberpunk setting. Shatter's latest contract acquaints him with femme fatale Cyan, who has transferred her deceased lover's RNA into herself, which enables her to absorb his piano playing talent. It's a less romantic piano scene than Blade Runner though, as it ends in a gunfight.
It's an intriguing, if fairly unoriginal start. However, there's the digital elephant in the room to battle past... The computer created artwork is undoubtedly an incredibly impressive technical achievement for the time, but by today's cutting edge standards, its rough dots and lines aren't exactly easy on the eyes. I also occasionally found the odd panel hard to follow, in a "what am I supposed to be looking at?" way. It also feels like the artistic tail is wagging the story dog, with the emphasis on technique, rather than content. The point is hammered home by Saenz's name coming first in the credits, an issue that would soon come to a head..
Jon Sable #25 (1985) - Shatter
Art: Mike Saenz
As the Macintosh art was so time consuming for Saenz to produce, the plan was to continue the story as an 8 page backup strip, to work all the kinks out before launching in a regular series. However, according to Peter Gillis, he quickly "butted heads" with Mike Saenz, who wanted to write the book as well as draw it. As Saenz was the only artist capable of drawing a comic digitally at the time, First had little choice but to agree. So Gillis had to depart his co-creation after this opening chapter in the next story. Here Shatter's death is elaborately staged, for reasons Gillis wouldn't get to cover, as Saenz finished the next 5 chapters in the back of Jon Sable by himself.
Saenz's solo run was short lived, as he left after 2 issues of the newly launched Shatter bi-monthly. Now First were forced to find an alternative method of production. Their solution was a digital halfway house: Steve Erwin would pencil the series traditionally, then it would be scanned in (at incredibly low resolution by today's standards) for Bob Dienethal to ink digitally. If you're thinking that digitising art, mouse drawing over dots then printing it out again for a much worse result defies logic, then you have a point, but this gimmick was the book's chief reason for continued existence.
Steven Grant wrote the first two all action issues with the new art team, which he concluded with the revelation that the RNA process was nothing more than an elaborate scam. Peter Gillis was less than impressed that this key concept he introduced had casually been invalidated, so he asked First Comics for his book back...
Next, the Third World War, and the second coming of Gillis' Shatter.
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